


Be the Leaf

by transmutes (orphan_account)



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Air Temple Island, F/M, Friendship, Kissing, MaKorra, mako: human disaster
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-13
Updated: 2012-04-13
Packaged: 2017-11-03 14:51:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/382541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/transmutes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mako tries to figure out how the hell to loosen up a bit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Be the Leaf

“The key,” Korra says, her voice a gruff, low caricature of Tenzin’s, “is to be like the leaf.” Her faces screws up, nose scrunching from concentration as she lifts the dark green leaf from her cupped palms with what little airbending skill she’s accrued. Mako’s watching her with feigned disinterest, chin resting in his palms. He notes the drops of perspiration gathering at her brow from effort and the triumphant gleam her in eyes as she pushes the uplifted leaf square into his face. “Or not,” she laughs, as Mako jolts back and swats it away with a scowl. 

For all her talk of how difficult the element is to bend, Mako thinks he sees in her more characteristics of an airbender than she’s probably cognizant of. She’s perpetually flowing, shifting through different emotions as they come to her. The freedom and ease with which she’s able to adapt to the changing winds of whatever situation they’re in is baffling to him. It doesn’t make sense, not really, when he sees how Korra simply allows herself to be happy for the sake of being happy and nothing else. Where Korra is fluid and open about how she’s feeling, Mako is rigid and guarded. It’s just who he is, his defenses always up, his shoulders always too weighed down by the burden of responsibility to ever just  _be_. 

But there’s something about the sparkle in her cyan irises that stirs him, although he can’t pinpoint why. Though he’s perpetually braced for disappointment of some sort, in this moment, things feel lighter than they’ve been in weeks. Sitting with Korra on the steps that lead up to the air temple, lazily sipping cool glasses of lychee juice as the late summer sun sinks below the horizon has filled him up with a contentment that is palpable on his tongue. _Be like the leaf_ , he thinks, willing himself to push worry about Amon, worry about the rebellion, worry about Bolin from his mind if only for an instant.  _Flow._  And because it works, and because he feels happy and light and almost free, he turns toward Korra, slides a hand through her hair, and plants a kiss on her soft lips.


End file.
